The Withdrawal Bill is a necessity for UK

Labour’s opposition to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill is cynical and hypocritical. It says it opposes the use of so-called Henry VIII clauses, which allow the Government to rewrite law without parliamentary scrutiny. But isn’t that what the EU has been doing for decades? The European Communities Act 1972, which took Britain into the Common Market, itself contains a Henry VIII clause which allows for the amendment of UK law to comply with EU acts. As Kate Hoey, the Eurosceptic Labour MP, complained, “if only a quarter of that time” spent worrying about the Withdrawal Bill had been spent scrutinising the EU law imposed on Britain. Instead, the UK outsourced much of its legislative process to the EU – and that is just one of the many reasons the public voted Leave.

Ms Hoey’s intervention is a reminder that while there are some pro-eu Tory rebels in parliament there are a handful of pro-brexit Labour rebels, too. Labour’s leadership, including Jeremy Corbyn and John Mcdonnell, is widely believed to be Eurosceptic; democratic socialists such as Graham Stringer warn that, if Labour commits to keeping Britain in the Single Market, it will be a “betrayal of the electorate”. On the other hand, millions of Remainers probably backed Labour in the general election on the basis that they thought it was either opposed to Brexit or that it could deliver a “softer” version of it. Consequently, Labour’s church is broad and incoherent. Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has tried to square the circle: stay in the Single Market during the transition and curb immigration. It is not a million miles away from the Government’s position.

So Sir Keir’s warning that the Withdrawal Bill will emasculate Parliament was pure theatre, albeit with potentially dangerous consequences. This bill is a necessity. The fact that it transposes EU law into UK law with the minimum of fuss is not ideal – it would be nice to scrutinise and scrap much of that content, if time allowed – but it is vital to ensure that, once we leave the EU, our laws are operational. To try to block the Withdrawal Bill is to undermine Britain’s economic security, which is highly ironic given that Labour, and its militant Remain wing, insist that they want to prevent disaster. On the contrary, they would jettison the national interest to preserve their flimsy electoral coalition – a pretty shoddy bit of politics at a time when the country deserves and needs better.